


New Girl

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Backstory, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-16 00:40:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14152899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: @pillarspromptsweekly #26 is another Roll for It. I did someone from your Watcher’s past, first impressions, and hesitation





	New Girl

**Author's Note:**

> @pillarspromptsweekly #26 is another Roll for It. I did someone from your Watcher’s past, first impressions, and hesitation

 

Tavi woke up sore. Not that she’d really expected otherwise. Even if you left out the fact someone had tried to kill her the night before, her “bed” had been a couple of blankets and one spare pillow from Maren. Seeing how exhausted Tavi was, and hearing she hadn’t made previous arrangements, the dwarf had insisted her newest hire bunk with her. Tavi had been too tired to argue.

Now parts of her wished she had. Particularly her back, still sore from the magical missiles that had hit her and not at all helped by her sleeping arrangement. And then she forgot herself, stretched to alleviate various aches, and fire tore through her back and ribcage. “Fucking _Hel_!”

There was a low chuckle from Maren as she stuffed her feet into her boots.  “Mornin’ to you, too, sunshine. I’ve done that enough times to sympathize.”

“Thanks, I think,” Tavi hissed, breathing through the pain. She pressed her elbow close to her side, as if it would make the cut across her ribs hurt less.  “Motherfucking...”

Maren grinned, pulling her hair back in a loose ponytail. “I’ll let you get yourself together while I make sure the rest of my crew’s up. My second got us a job last night.”

“Local?” Tavi asked cautiously, not at all sure the people after her would have given up by now and not liking the idea of sticking around to find out.

“Nah,” Maren said. “Escort job for a nervous little merchant. Ev says he’s probably paranoid, but his coin’ll spend the same. C’mon, I want you up, clean, and dressed by the time I get back so I can make proper introductions.”

Tavi nodded, the pain starting to fade. “Yes, boss.”

“That’s the spirit.” Maren winked and headed out the door.

After it had clicked shut behind her, Tavi finally hobbled toward the washroom, her knee stiff from how long she’d been still, and ran her fingers through the bloody snarls of her hair. _I am a **long** way from presentable..._

Not that she really cared, but she felt like death too, and knew getting cleaned up would help with that. So she washed off the dried blood, did her best to get the snarls out of her hair, and made sure her bandages were neat and snug before rummaging in her pack for a clean shirt. There were only two left, something she’d have to fix, Tavi noted as she pulled out the dark red one.

 _No one’ll be able to tell if I start bleeding,_ she thought glibly. She fastened her sword belt over the too-big garment, searching for her boots as she rolled up the sleeves. She really should put on different trousers as well, but that would be too much work. The cut on her knee hadn’t bled _that_ much.

 _That’s a decent first impression,_ Tavi decided, and was limping toward the door when it opened.

“Much better,” Maren said with an approving nod. She surveyed Tavi, gaze running over the weathered boots and travel-stained pants, up to the bandages sticking out from one sleeve of her oversized shirt and the sabres hanging at her hips. “Now you look like you belong in Silversteel. Come meet everybody.”

Tavi followed her out of the room, only hesitated slightly at the thought of several new people she’d have to trust. _People to watch your back was literally one of Maren’s selling points last night,_ she reminded herself. _You liked the sound of it then. Just go with it._ They didn’t have to go far, just to one of the common rooms she’d noticed the night before. A small knot of kith--mostly humans, though there were a couple more dwarves--sat and stood around one of the tables studying a map.

“Alright, you lot, eyes on me,” Maren said briskly as she and Tavi approached. They all complied immediately. “Glad as I am t’ see you hard at work preparin’ for our excursion, I need t’ introduce ya to someone.” She nudged Tavi with her elbow, gently, in consideration of her injuries. “This is Tavi. Met her last night. She’s joined up.”

“ _Di verus_?” frowned a lanky, dark skinned woman, pulling a single long, thick braid over her shoulder. “When? You didn’t meet anyone while you were with us, Maren. And you turned in early. So unless you found her skulking in your bedroom, I’m unclear as to where you could’ve met someone to recruit.”

“Ain’t that important where, Fausta,” Maren shot back. “All that matters is that I think she’ll be a good fit. Any more details you can learn when she feels like sharin’ ‘em.”

“Looks a bit more beat up than your regular hires,” commented one of the dwarves, raking hair out of his eyes.

“That’s how I know she’s a good fit, Ben,” Maren retorted, preempting Tavi’s own reply. “She can handle herself in a fight. Prob’ly better ‘n most of you bastards,” she teased. “Tavi, this is Eddyth, Yelena, Benio, Severi, and Fausta” --she pointed in turn as she reeled off the names, and Tavi had just enough time to match them with faces-- “and apparently my second is-”

“Right here, Maren,” a warm voice chuckled behind Tavi.

The nearness of it made her spine prickle. _Hylea’s feathered tits, how did he get so fuckin’ close?!_ Spinning around to size up the late arrival did nothing to answer her question.

The human standing in the doorway--in addition to being unnaturally tall--did _not_ look the stealthy type. He was wearing a chain shirt, for fuck’s sake. And big, sturdy leather boots that should have made more than enough noise for Tavi to hear him coming. But she _hadn’t._ And from the faint smirk on his face, he knew that was bothering her.

“Shit, Ev, what took you so long?” Maren said lightly, crossing her arms in what seemed half-hearted (at best) censure.

“I was finalizing things with our new employer,” he replied smoothly. “The route he wants to take, any other important details he felt we should know.” He tilted his head toward Tavi. “This one of the new bodies?”

“I’m Tavi,” she spoke up before Maren could. It had been one thing to let the woman handle things with the group, but this bastard had somehow snuck up on her and could tell that bothered her, both of which were impressive individually. Seeing them both in the same person was approaching a blazing miracle. “And yes, you could call me the new girl.”

He smiled. It was a nice smile, warm as his voice had sounded, and genuine(far as she could tell). “Everin. You could call me Maren’s right hand man.” He ran an appraising eye over Tavi. She caught the eyebrow twitch when he saw the bandages visible in her ensemble, the appreciative nod when he glanced at her sabres. “What’s your story?”

“Don’t have one,” she fired back, gingerly crossing her arms. _Not that you need to know._  “I’m tough to kill and I need money, so I’m gonna work with you all for a bit. That’s all.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to test that first claim for a while,” Everin chuckled.  “This escort job is through one of the safer parts of the country, but you never know when some desperate brigand will try something.”

“That’s what got y- us this job?” she probed. “Some fuckin’ rich merchant worryin’ he’ll be the unlucky sod who gets attacked?”

“You do have a head for this business,” he said with an approving nod. “I like this one, Mare.”

“I’m so glad you approve,” Maren deadpanned. “When does our esteemed merchant want to leave?”

“’Nother hour,” Everin replied, rolling his shoulders. “Why, you want to go try and find that last replacement before we leave?”

“Nah, nothing like that.” Maren shook her head. “He specify where he wants to meet?”

“North gate.”

“Alright, then. You heard the man, Silversteel. You have an hour to get your shit together and meet up at the north gate so we can get this merchant where he wants to go.”

xXx 

It didn’t take Tavi anywhere close to an hour to be ready, even including a detour by the tailor for a few extra shirts. That ran her awfully close to broke, but traveling with a group she wouldn’t be able to get away with wearing the same shirt for a week straight. Besides, she didn’t want the first impression she left on a tight knit and seemingly competent adventuring company to trend toward  “unprepared ragamuffin”. 

All told, her errand and collecting her things from Maren’s room only took half the allotted hour. Tavi headed for the north gate anyway. She didn’t have anywhere better to be, especially now that her coin purse held two silver lusces and not a blazing copper more. She figured she could be the first one there, maybe keep half an eye out for her attackers from the previous night, see if she saw them leaving.

She was wrong, at least on the first count, which pretty much trashed her chances of doing the rest. Everin was already there. _He’s the second in command, it doesn’t count,_ Tavi groused when part of her laughed. “You here to make sure everyone behaves themselves when they show up?” she snarked.

He laughed. “Partly. Ben and Lena are both prone to wandering when they get bored, so I’m going to make sure once they get here they _stay_ here. And you?”

“I’m just early,” Tavi deflected, mildly irritated by how much she had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. _Gods, was he a fucking aumaua in a past life or something?_ “I was only passin’ through this place; got nothin’ keeping me here. No loose ends to tie up or anything.”

“Mmm.” Everin fiddled with the buckles on his leather bracers. “If you don’t mind my asking, since you don’t want to share your story yet, mind telling me where Maren found you, exactly?”

Tavi hesitated briefly, perched on a low wall nearby to cover that fact and get weight off her leg, and decided it couldn’t hurt to share that much. “Her washroom.”

“I fucking _knew it_!” the interjection came from Fausta as she sauntered up. She shot Tavi a friendly grin. “Don’t worry, Maren collects strays and loose cannons and lone wolves like Aedyran nobles collect rare art.”

“Reassuring,” Tavi said dryly, scratching at the bandages around her arm.

“And why, precisely, were you in her washroom?” Everin prompted, steering her back to her storry.

“Oh, fuck, right.” She swung her leg back and forth to stretch her knee as she deliberated how much detail to include. “Narrowly escaped a scrap gone south and needed somewhere to patch myself up. Healer was closed, so I picked a room I thought was empty at the adventurers’ hall t’ use instead. Was empty when I started, but turned out to be Maren’s, so she found me when she got back. She helped me stitch up various injuries, decided I look like adventurer material, and offered me the job.”

Fausta chuckled. “Sounds a lot like Sev’s story, _aimica_ , only I think he was making do with an alley...”

Huh.” Tavi ran one hand through her hair. The movement tugged various healing injuries and she winced as she looked over at Everin. “How sure are you that we won’t hafta fight anythig on this trip? Normally I’m all fuckin’ for a good brawl, but I’m not at my best right now.”

“Pretty damn,” he assured her. “There’s always an outside chance, of course; that’s what keeps us in business. We prefer the adventuring side of things, but when those jobs are scarce, there’s always someone willing to pay good money to make sure they don’t fall prey to that outside chance. And don’t worry, if you’re not at your best, I’m sure Maren’ll give you a role that doesn’t push you too hard this time out. Especially if she helped you patch up and knows how bad it is.”

Tavi nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds like a good woman to work for.”

“She is,” Everin and Fausta said in unison.

The rest of their wait for the others was spent double checking weapons and exchanging small talk with each member of the company as they arrived. Maren was last, walking next to a pale, spindly human and his heavily loaded cart. She took a visual headcount to confirm everyone was there, and they set off. As Everin had predicted, she assigned Tavi to guard the cart, which meant she didn’t even have to walk on her bad leg. Tavi caught Everin’s eye as she got settled and he winked at her. She grinned and winked back. This job was looking like a very good decision.

xXx

Also as predicted, the journey went smoothly. For the most. The merchant--Tavi never did bother to learn his name--was a jittery thing, but not in an overly obnoxious way. Silversteel proved to be a good company, both professionally and in terms of letting her warm to them at her own pace. She appreciated that. It had been awhile since she traveled with a group, company was an almost alien feeling. An easy job like this was perfect for adjusting.

And then, their fourth day on the road, things stopped being easy. The bandits who attacked were sloppy and seemed inexperienced, but made up for it by having twice the men Silversteel did. A fact Tavi found especially irritating given she was still healing from the _last_ fight she’d been in. Healing or no, she didn’t hesitate to launch herself into the sprint necessary to cover the distance between her and the closest of the fuckwits ganging up on Everin. He was handling himself fine with three, but she pretty sure the fourth would tip things against him.

Pushing off her good leg for the last step, Tavi flung herself elbow-first into her target. She smirked as ribs cracked and the man wheezed out a curse. Her knee was already throbbing as she rolled off him. For as hard as she’d hit him, he recovered blazing fast, flailing a wild punch at Tavi’s head. She dodged that easily enough, but her knee gave out when she tried to stand. _Oh, **fuck,**_ was all she could think as she dropped back to her knees, the jarring impact sending another spike of pain through her bad leg.

Even cringing in pain from his own injuries, the bandit recognized an opening when he saw one. He pulled back his sword arm for a swing as Tavi teetered and plopped backward onto her ass-

-But never followed through. Everin made sure of that, slamming the pommel of his estoc into the man’s temple. The bandit fell limp, making him easy enough to finish off.

“Thanks for the save,” Tavi panted through gritted teeth, fighting down waves of nausea and pain from her knee.

“Feel like I’m the one who should be saying that,” Everin said wryly, offering her a hand up. “I was so focused on the first three I didn’t even register the fourth. He could’ve fucked me up good.”

“It’s part of the job, right?” she deflected as she took his hand. He was strong enough she was able to get to her feet only putting weight on the good leg. “Thank y-” She almost went back down as her bad knee gave out. “Fuck!”

Everin grabbed her arm and helped her hobble to a nearby boulder. “Here, let’s see.”

Tavi bit her lip, nails digging into her palms to stay quiet as she let him pull off her boot and roll up the leg of her trousers until they could see. “Well, that’s not fuckin’ good.”

Everin just nodded as he started unwinding the bandages, spots of fresh blood having already seeped through. He paused briefly each time she flinched before resuming the process.

Tavi wished she could say she was surprised when the bandages came of and revealed she’d completely torn that wound open again. “Damn, that one was almost healed, too.”

“Sev or Maren can patch you up,” Everin assured her, glancing toward where the rest of the company was regrouping. “They’re better at it than I am. You have a preference?”

“Maren, I guess? Since I know her a little better?” Tavi said with a sigh.

“Sure,” he nodded, then whistled sharply. “Maren!”

“I coulda done that,” Tavi snorted as Maren made a _one second_ gesture.

“I’m sure you could’ve, but I owe ya,” Everin winked, grinning.

“Nah, I think we’re about even on lives saved count,” she retorted with a smirk, wincing as she tried to straighten the injured leg. “Godsdammit. Some first impression, huh? Get myself hurt to the point of crippled an’ need fuckin’ saving very first fight after joinin’ up.”

“You risked reopening an existing injury in order to watch my back,” Everin contradicted, pulling out a rag to begin cleaning his estoc. “Pretty damn good first impression in my book, new girl.”

“Mm, I like your book. It’s blazin’ charitable,” Tavi chuckled, sighing in relief when Maren started in their direction. “But hopefully this won’t become a regular occurrence.”

“Which part?” he laughed.

“Needing to reinjure myself to watch your ass,” she said. “Don’t mind the second part, it’s the first I wanna avoid.”

“Understandable,” Everin nodded. By now Maren had reached them, and she shooed him off to get everyone ready to move on while she took care of Tavi. He acquiesced with a smile and another wink at Tavi before trudging back toward the wagon.

Tavi grinned as she watched him go. _Damn good first impression indeed._


End file.
